The Shanghai Composite Index finished down 1.8 percent at 2,076.7 points, while the CSI300 of the largest Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares shed 2.2 percent. For both, this was their biggest single day loss since Jan. 6.

The Nasdaq-style ChiNext Composite Index of mainly high-tech start ups listed in Shenzhen outperformed, climbing 1.7 percent to near a record closing high.

The official Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday that Industrial Bank and other banks may have stopped extending loans to property developers and tightened lending to other property-related sectors such as steel, cement and construction.

Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 9.6 percent in January from a year earlier, easing from the previous month’s 9.9 percent rise, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.